I made a mistake and they used the old "violation of company policy" to end my employment. After five years there I had worked my way into the Asst. Personnel Manager position and had been once passed over for the Manager post based on a lack of experience within their system.

About three months before I was let go, we got in a new security manager from Las Vegas who shook down the whole store and actually said she was going to get rid of at least 38% or whatever the number was of employees that statistically were stealing from the company. For awhile she did a great job of weeding out the cashiers and others that were stealing but once she had sifted out the truly bad seeds she began to go for anybody and I saw people I would never have imagined being summarily drummed out of the store. Kinda reminded me of Germany before WWII.

Anyway, one of my functions in personnel was to oversee payroll and benefits and one of those benefits was a cafeteria plan that provided $500 a year in reimbursement for eyeglasses, tuition and other expenses. We had overpaid a guy that I considered to be a friend by $7 and some odd change and one day he came to me with it in cash. The personnel manager was on vacation and so I simply put it in my desk drawer and forgot about it, intending to take care of it when she returned.

Where I made the mistake was when it came time for lunch I asked the guy if I could borrow the money for lunch and replace it. He didn't have a problem so I used his money since I had no cash on me. I used the money intending to put it back, but forgot about it and when he was asked by the PM about it he told them that he had given me the money. You can see where this is going.

At first I didn't even know what they were talking about when confronted, but when it finally dawned on me the security bitch (sorry) said all I had to do was write out a statement and replace the money and that would be it. As soon as I signed the paper I was shown the door and told not to come back.

I was pretty young and stupid, but never intended to steal any money. Especially just $7. I had a promising career in a position that I enjoyed and lost it all because of an innocent mistake. Such is life.

I'm not planning on shopping at target either. Not for that problem that Trex had to deal with (ghess....what a nasty *itch to deal with)..... I found out via the local news that Target "banned" the Salvation Army from setting up their red-kettle money drive for the holiday. They figure they will loose somewhere about 6million bucks nationwide due to target acting like a scrooge... Guess Target's only about their bottem line...and not showing much "goodwill towards man/woman".

I guess that solves the medical marijuana issue here in Oregon. We passed a law a few years back legalizing it for medical use only with a doctor's prescription, but never made provisions for how people would buy it. Never thought Target would be the one to solve this delimma. Too funny.